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From: budd@mist.cs.orst.edu (Tim Budd)
Newsgroups: comp.object
Subject: Reflections
Message-ID: <1991May10.201843.7186@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU>
Date: 10 May 91 20:18:43 GMT
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Organization: Computer Science Department, Oregon State Univ.
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Here is something more interesting and light-hearted to discusss.
Enough of these long silly technical discussions.

Many authors (not necessarily computer science authors) have noted 
that in America people are largely characterized by their profession.
That is, when strangers are introduced here, the second question asked
(after finding out their respective names), is usually ``Well, what do you
do?''.  In many cultures, even some western cultures, such a personal 
question might be seen as odd, if not offensive, but in America it is the norm.

Now it strikes me that this is a very object-oriented way of viewing the
world; namely that individuals are characterized more by their behavior than
their identity.  It is interesting to speculate to what degree programming
languages reflect the culture in which they are developed.

Could object-oriented programming have developed in, for example, China?  
Or did it require Linneaus and several centuries of organization-by-hierarchy?
(I once had a student write a paper for me describing the traditional chinese 
way of organizing knowledge, but neither he nor I could see how to make a
programming language that reflected this in the way that OOP reflects the
Linneaus-Aristotelean approach).  

To what degree is the wide aceptance of
OOP based on the fact that we have already, our our everyday lives, bought
into the belief that objects are characterized by their behavior?

(Alternatively could OOP have been developed if the concept of class was
not so firmly rooted in our culture?  Since I know of no culture that
doesn't have classes in one form or another this is more difficult to
speculate about).